Surveiling the Hunters
by Mirrored Illusions
Summary: Buffy and Angel observe the Winchester brothers, and Jo, desecrate another grave while doing a little planning. Part 4 of 'Like the Moon'.


Disclaimer: The Buffyverse and SPN do not belong to me.

Written for TtH's 2018 August FaD, day 5.

Part 4 of 'Like the Moon'.

Several months had passed since Buffy's run-in with the female Hunter, and she and Angel were now right outside of a sleepy Southern town in the middle of nowhere. They were patrolling the town's only graveyard, which was quite a lot larger than the small town had implied. It also had a dozen mausoleums and strategically placed trees inside its stone walls. Most of the graves were well-tended to, except for the older ones, but that wasn't unusual.

What was unusual was the three people by one of those old graves. A twenty-something blonde woman in jeans and a red-checkered flannel shirt was standing beside the open grave holding a sawed-off shotgun. Down in the grave were the two Winchester brothers, digging their way down to the coffin.

Buffy gave her boyfriend a look and then said, in a low voice. "That's the blonde who refused to believe it's possible to stake vampires." She looked back again at the woman. The other blonde had clearly been put on watch-duty, as she kept her eyes on her surroundings and kept moving in a slow circle. The weapon was held comfortably in both hands and pointing at the ground, but her entire demeanor said she could raise it in seconds if need be.

"You were right, she does know our two annoying Hunters," Angel whispered his response directly into her ear, causing a delicious shiver to run down her spine. Buffy nodded, that could be both good and bad for them. Good, if she was able to convince her friends they weren't going to harm them, bad if she'd come to the same conclusion as them. Neither she nor Angel had ever hurt any of them. Yes, they'd tied up the brothers, but it had been self-defense so they could get away without doing any real harm. A blow to their ego wouldn't hurt them. And she'd only talked to the blonde for a few, short minutes before she'd left.

Over by the graveside, Sam and Dean had stopped digging. They hadn't gone down far enough to have reached the coffin, so it must be time for a short break. The night was quiet with the only noise being a light breeze rustling the leaves on the nearby trees so even a normal person could've overheard the following conversation if they'd been standing in the same area as the supernatural couple. They'd been walking around the boneyard looking for vampires to dust before Buffy went to sleep for the night, rather than making out on the top of a mausoleum like they'd been doing the first time they'd met the Winchester's. Standing on the ground didn't give them the same excellent view but at least the mausoleum they were standing beside gave them a good cover. The darkness and their preoccupation helped, too.

They could've just climbed on top of the structure, but their rapid movements while climbing or jumping would've upped the risk of being seen, and they had silently agreed to stay in the shadows if possible. Not drawing their attention would definitely be of the good. Both the Scoobies and the tattered remains of Team Angel had done research on Hunters and their community, and while they were doing a good job keeping humanity safe - they had a really low tolerance of non-humans. 'Non-humans' was defined as anything from part-humans such as vampires and werewolves to witches. If they ever found out about Slayers, and especially their origins, then they would no doubt be classified as demons as well.

Their research had led them to send several teams undercover as Hunters in multiple states, both to keep an eye on the situation but also to see if any of them were worth recruiting to their cause. Each team consisted of at least one research-oriented Slayer and one Watcher. In addition, there was at minimum either a witch, a human with some kind of 'extra' ability, or a regular human who wanted to help fight. Any news or new knowledge they gained were reported back to headquarters. So far, none of them had heard anything regarding Slayers.

While Buffy's thoughts had been wandering, the two men had gone back to digging. Their conversation hadn't yielded much, aside from a name. Apparently, their mystery blonde was named Jo and she wasn't happy about being roped into keeping watch. Neither of them had said anything about Buffy or Angel, which meant they still didn't know where they stood with Jo.

Buffy leaned a little closer to her favorite vampire and whispered, "Do you think we should try and recruit Jo? She seems to have grown up in the Hunter community, so she should know a lot about it. Her stance says she can fight and all Hunters need to know how to do their own research. She's a perfect fit if she can get past the whole non-human part of our group."

Angel hmm'd beside her but appeared to be thinking about her proposition seriously. Over in the open grave, Sammy finally hit the wooden coffin and Dean cheered. The sound of shovels hitting dirt sped up and shortly after they jumped out of the hole they'd dug. The shorter of the two men scattered salt into the grave while the taller one picked up a can of something flammable and poured it in.

The men got their own sawed-off shotguns ready while Jo insisted on throwing the match. Buffy grinned, fire really was pretty. An apparition of an angry-looking woman attempted to attack the three people but got shot in the head with salt for her troubles. Soon after her coffin and her remains were burning merrily.

As the fire burned, the Hunters gathered most of their stuff and carried it over to the black Impala waiting for them in the parking lot. Once the fire had burned itself out all three of them took up shovels and refilled the grave. They got points for trying to make it look undisturbed, even if it lacked grass and flowers now.

As the three Hunters drove off in their classic car, Buffy and Angel stepped out of the shadows. "Jo could fit in well with all the other women and girls; I'm sure being one of the few female Hunters get lonely and irritating at times. Being treated like a delicate flower by all the manly men despite having the same skillset."

Angel gave her one of his half-smiles, "I'm sure she would. We can arrange an 'accidental' meeting when the Winchesters have left for their next Hunt, and you can test the waters."

Buffy gave him a sunny smile before reaching up on tiptoes to give him a quick kiss. "You're the best." Then she put her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss.


End file.
